OT: old hometown's program in shambles (again)

[NMSooner'80]

https://www.abqjournal.com/979799/maybe-neal-needs-to-jump-on-his-harley-and-hit-road.html

I do envy their crowds, but I don't envy UNM's current situation. The Lobos' history since 2000 has been rather up-and-down - mostly down. I do remember how Fran Fraschilla got treated like a coaching legend before he ever put a team on the floor, then they never made the NCAA (and I also remember how OU was kicking his butt in JC recruiting, and how the locals couldn't believe they were losing out to a "lesser" program - as if). No one really wanted the job too much when he left. Ritchie McKay almost got it by default.

Much like how Eddie Sutton fell into the laps of the Poke Nation, Steve Alford landed there and did surprisingly well. But I always had a hunch he'd bail when the timing was bad, and he sure did.

I wouldn't be at all shocked if that job opened up soon, as Ed Johnson of their morning paper said here.

 

[NMSooner'80]

It opened up last night. I'm only surprised at the timing. I wouldn't be surprised if some of their fans expect Calipari or Roy Williams to apply.

 

[tycat947]

It opened up last night. I'm only surprised at the timing. I wouldn't be surprised if some of their fans expect Calipari or Roy Williams to apply.

:ez-laugh:

 

[sanguinetti]

Ritchie McCay....there's a name i forgot existed. i remember him in the Denver media at CSU. he had two average to slightly better than average seasons (both worse than the last few of his CSU predecessor Stew Morrill)... and somehow turned that into the Oregon State job and bombed. admittedly, a tough gig in Corvallis....but I remember on Denver sports radio Ritchie talked about Ritchie like Ritchie's last name was Wooden. but, coached like his last name was .500.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Interesting. With 246 wins during his 11 year stint as head coach of New Mexico basketball (1989 - 1999), Dave Bliss appears to have the most wins of any men's basketball coach in New Mexico Lobos history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_Lobos_men's_basketball

 

[NMSooner'80]

Interesting. With 246 wins during his 11 year stint as head coach of New Mexico basketball (1989 - 1999), Dave Bliss appears to have the most wins of any men's basketball coach in New Mexico Lobos history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_Lobos_men's_basketball

That is correct. But, if you'd ever read the fishwraps and heard some of the talk shows, you'd have thought he never won a game.

I know he demolished his own reputation a few years after leaving Albuquerque, but honestly some of the stuff he had to put up with, in regard to the media and the "narrative" was downright ridiculous. It all pretty much started not long before OU went out there for an early-December game, when he benched a senior big-man who was legendary for being a lazy underachiever, in favor of a better prospect who was just starting to come around (that was then-sophomore Luc Longley). The Albuquerque media made the guy he replaced into a martyr, then created "controversies" over who got playing time. That continued the rest of his career there. Guys who left were "run off and/or mistreated," and were somehow judged as better than the starters. And they averaged 26 wins a season near the end of that era.

They had trouble scheduling "big-names" - but it had a lot to do with their needing to play "money games" at home to fund the whole athletic department. But, the media said they were ducking people, in spite of the fact they never once looked into who they could have been playing (and OU didn't renew the home-and-home because, ironically enough, the media offended Tubbs when OU was in town that day). Never mind that the team down the interstate never played anyone better than UNM or UTEP among its own non-league foes. But, it allowed the uneducated folks to keep believing that NMSU played tougher teams, which was completely false.

The media also was very happy with letting people believe that staff didn't develop players (like when former assistant John McCullough got Longley's footwork and shooting form fixed - it went completely unreported). And when Bliss' last Lobo team lost a few road games, the "narrative" became that they were a terrible road team, and always were during his career. But, the truth was, his road record was better than everyone's in that school's history other than Steve Alford.

I was living there back then. Many of the fans really expected the "big name coaches" to line up for the job. They didn't, but Fran Fraschilla was seen as a "big-time hire" because he'd once been at St. John's. Like I said, the whole thing started over again when Fran left and people were running away from that job.

I know it's uncool to many to say anything that defends Bliss. But, I dislike media falsehoods, no matter who's affected. And these same folks loved the guy who almost got UNM the Death Penalty in the late 70's (major academic fraud, recruiting violations - and the non-NCAA stuff that should have mattered included several player arrests). If that ex-coach hadn't died in 2015, they'd want to dig him up and put him back on the bench again.